 "Tejpal arrested in sexual assault case")
According to news agency PTI, Judge Anuja Prabhudesai, who was hearing Tejpal’s bail plea, allowed him to take his lawyer’s assistance during interrogation once a day after he was taken into custody. He would also be allowed to have home-cooked food.
Earlier in the day, Tejpal’s counsel, Geeta Luthra, had argued custodial interrogation of his client was not needed, as he had not evaded arrest. Meanwhile, the prosecution said the victim had been consistent in her submission and that a custodial interrogation of Tejpal was required.
The sessions court judge had granted Tejpal interim bail till 10 am on Saturday after he arrived in Goa on Friday. The state police had issued summons against him and was seeking a 14-day custody.
Tejpal had earlier sought an anticipatory bail from the Delhi High court but had later withdrawn his plea and agreed to appear before the Goa Police. Following the allegations of sexual misconduct, Tejpal had last week stepped down as the editor of Tehelka and handed over control to Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhary, who also resigned two days ago.
“There has been an untoward incident and though he has extended an unconditional apology to the colleague involved, Tarun will be recusing himself as the editor of Tehelka for the next six months”, Shoma Chaudhary, Managing Editor of Tehelka had written in her mail to her colleagues.
In her complaint, the victim had said that Tejpal had attempted to rape her on two occasions during Think. Seven senior journalists of the magazine quit in protest after the allegations caught national attention and the magazine’s owner and Trinamool Congress MP, KD Singh had also expressed his willingness to sell of his stake in the company.
“My strong feeling is that Think is going to disappear now and can be revived only after a long hiatus. As far as Tehelka the magazine is concerned it has clearly lost its credibility and high ground, which it stood for. Even if it may not shut down, it is only going to limp as it has lost its prestige”, adman Prahlad Kakkar had told Business Standard earlier.
According to the last available filings with the ministry of corporate affairs, Trinamool Congress MP and promoter of Alchemist group Kanwar Deep Singh controls about two-thirds of the equity of Anant Media through a company called Royal Building and Infrastructure. Royal raised its stake from 30 per cent to 65 per cent during 2011-12 by buying 101,371 equity shares. These shares were subscribed at a substantial premium of Rs 25.39 crore, which helped the company offset a part of its accumulated losses of Rs 66.17 crore. In addition to the equity stake, Royal gave unsecured loans of Rs 19.6 crore to Anant Media during 2011-12.
The allegations against Tejpal had also stormed into a political slugfest with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claiming that a union minister and a founder of Tehelka was shielding him from the hands of the law.